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Washington: US intelligence agencies We could not determine whether researchers in the laboratory in Wuhan, China, who became ill in the fall of 2019, had been infected with the Covid-19 virus, which quickly spread around the world, according to a declassified report released on Friday.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed details about scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who contracted the disease in 2019 before the first documented infection with Covid, as well as coronavirus research conducted by the People’s Liberation Army in the laboratory. However, none of the intelligence has definitively pointed to lab-related work as the cause of the pandemic, which has killed nearly 7 million people.
The report comes months after President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the declassification of intelligence regarding the pandemic’s possible links to the laboratory. It will do little to settle the hotly contested debate over how Covid-19 began, which is already the source of partisan clashes and investigations.
It’s also far from the last word on how the pandemic started. Intelligence officials said they are still seeking key information from China.
“When President Biden signed the Covid-19 Origin Act, he directed the intelligence community to use every tool at his disposal to investigate the origin of Covid-19,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said in an emailed statement. “The release of this report reflects this commitment to declassifying and sharing as much information about the origins of Covid-19 as possible, while protecting sources and methods.”
The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
missed deadline
The Biden administration missed the June 18 deadline to release the declassified intelligence. This coincided with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s long-awaited visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to restore contacts between the two countries’ high command and militaries.
The flight, initially scheduled for February, was postponed in the wake of outrage over an alleged Chinese spy balloon spotted over US soil. Biden signed the law requiring Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to release information that was declassified in March.
The new report builds on previous findings, including a State Department report from January 2021 that indicated that the US government had reason to believe that many researchers within Wuhan laboratory He became ill in 2019, prior to the first identified case of the Covid-19 outbreak, with symptoms consistent with the virus and common seasonal illnesses.
The ODNI report stated that there was no indication that the researchers were hospitalized for Covid, and that the intelligence community was unable to confirm whether any of the researchers had handled live virus prior to contracting the disease.
The report acknowledged that Wuhan researchers collaborated with the People’s Liberation Army on public health research involving coronaviruses, vaccines, and treatments for such viruses, although there is no known research that could have led to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2.
The report said that some scientists at the Wuhan Institute genetically engineered coronaviruses using common laboratory practices, adding that they are not familiar with the manipulation of viruses that could be the source of SARS-CoV-2.
The report also identified safety and security issues at the institute that could have increased the risk of accidental exposure to viruses. The intelligence community said it was not aware of a specific biosafety incident that might have spurred the epidemic.
The laboratory leak hypothesis
So far, the US intelligence community has shared some details about information collected since the start of the pandemic.
Last year, the agencies concluded that two reasons were plausible: the virus appeared in animals and spread to humans, or it originated from an incident in a laboratory in Wuhan. Despite disagreement among agencies about the most likely hypothesis, the intelligence community has agreed that Covid-19 was not intentionally developed as a bioweapon.
Both the FBI and the Department of Energy have said, with low to medium confidence, that the lab leak theory is possible. This has remained a minority view, and most other groups consider human exposure to an infected animal to be more likely.
The report also said that most, but not all, intelligence agencies have ruled out that Covid-19 was genetically engineered or lab-adapted.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed details about scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who contracted the disease in 2019 before the first documented infection with Covid, as well as coronavirus research conducted by the People’s Liberation Army in the laboratory. However, none of the intelligence has definitively pointed to lab-related work as the cause of the pandemic, which has killed nearly 7 million people.
The report comes months after President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the declassification of intelligence regarding the pandemic’s possible links to the laboratory. It will do little to settle the hotly contested debate over how Covid-19 began, which is already the source of partisan clashes and investigations.
It’s also far from the last word on how the pandemic started. Intelligence officials said they are still seeking key information from China.
“When President Biden signed the Covid-19 Origin Act, he directed the intelligence community to use every tool at his disposal to investigate the origin of Covid-19,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said in an emailed statement. “The release of this report reflects this commitment to declassifying and sharing as much information about the origins of Covid-19 as possible, while protecting sources and methods.”
The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
missed deadline
The Biden administration missed the June 18 deadline to release the declassified intelligence. This coincided with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s long-awaited visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to restore contacts between the two countries’ high command and militaries.
The flight, initially scheduled for February, was postponed in the wake of outrage over an alleged Chinese spy balloon spotted over US soil. Biden signed the law requiring Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to release information that was declassified in March.
The new report builds on previous findings, including a State Department report from January 2021 that indicated that the US government had reason to believe that many researchers within Wuhan laboratory He became ill in 2019, prior to the first identified case of the Covid-19 outbreak, with symptoms consistent with the virus and common seasonal illnesses.
The ODNI report stated that there was no indication that the researchers were hospitalized for Covid, and that the intelligence community was unable to confirm whether any of the researchers had handled live virus prior to contracting the disease.
The report acknowledged that Wuhan researchers collaborated with the People’s Liberation Army on public health research involving coronaviruses, vaccines, and treatments for such viruses, although there is no known research that could have led to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2.
The report said that some scientists at the Wuhan Institute genetically engineered coronaviruses using common laboratory practices, adding that they are not familiar with the manipulation of viruses that could be the source of SARS-CoV-2.
The report also identified safety and security issues at the institute that could have increased the risk of accidental exposure to viruses. The intelligence community said it was not aware of a specific biosafety incident that might have spurred the epidemic.
The laboratory leak hypothesis
So far, the US intelligence community has shared some details about information collected since the start of the pandemic.
Last year, the agencies concluded that two reasons were plausible: the virus appeared in animals and spread to humans, or it originated from an incident in a laboratory in Wuhan. Despite disagreement among agencies about the most likely hypothesis, the intelligence community has agreed that Covid-19 was not intentionally developed as a bioweapon.
Both the FBI and the Department of Energy have said, with low to medium confidence, that the lab leak theory is possible. This has remained a minority view, and most other groups consider human exposure to an infected animal to be more likely.
The report also said that most, but not all, intelligence agencies have ruled out that Covid-19 was genetically engineered or lab-adapted.
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